Congress Averts Shutdown Again, Passes Three-Week Continuing Resolution

Facing the expiration of the current funding measure on Friday, March 18, Congress has passed another stopgap appropriations bill to continue federal funding of programs for three weeks. Continuing the trend of the last two week funding bill, the new Continuing Resolution (CR) reduces federal spending by $2 billion for each of the three weeks for which it provides funding. The bill makes these $6 billion of cuts by eliminating earmarks and cutting programs identified in the President’s budget proposal. In total, Congress has now reduced federal discretionary spending by $10 billion below last year, FY10, levels.

While enactment of this CR seems assured, frustration among members in both Houses and on both sides of the aisle is growing and it seems likely that this bill will be the last temporary measure agreed to -- forcing some resolution of FY11 by the end of this CR on April 8 or else an impasse may result in an actual shutdown. Republican House leaders and members continue to stand behind HR 1, legislation they passed earlier this year cutting $61 billion from FY11 funding and containing many policy riders to block funding for abortions, regulation of green house gases, implementation of health care reform, etc. Impatience is building among new House members on the lack of progress on HR 1, creating new friction between House Republican leaders and Senate Democrats over both the policy riders and the depth of cuts included in HR 1. In addition, there is growing concern that short-term, stop-gap measures are reducing the effectiveness of agencies and handicapping government operations.

The last weeks have seen some halting progress toward a resolution. The willingness of the White House and Senate Democrats to accept significant cuts allowed the temporary CR’s to pass and indicated a willingness to engage on further cutting. However, although the White House has begun to engage in the discussions to resolve FY11 and has appointed Vice President Biden to lead these talks, the decisions ahead will require confronting serious cuts to important programs. The cuts agreed to thus far were really the “low hanging fruit” including the elimination of earmarks, cuts already proposed in the President’s FY12 budget and therefore accelerated, and elimination of funding left over from the U. S. Census. With rank and file Republican House members having shown little interest in moving away from the deep cuts in HR 1, significant additional reductions will put many programs at risk in any final resolution.

With Harvard’s significant participation in federal research and education programs, we remain very engaged in these issues. We will stay in touch as there are further developments. Please feel free to be in touch with Suzanne Day or Jon Groteboer in Harvard’s Washington office (at 202 863-1292) should you have questions or concerns.